Croghan's Emma joins Airfield Estate Youth Board
A 16-year old Offaly student has been appointed to the youth board of Airfield Estate, which is one of Ireland's best-known sustainable food hubs.
Emily O'Brien, who comes from a dairy farm in Croghan, is one of ten teenagers from around the country to be named among the membership of Airfield Estate's 2025-2026 Youth Board.
Emily, along with her fellow board members, will help to inform and shape the future of sustainable food in Ireland through their membership of the Airfield Estate Youth Board. The Youth Board aims to help teens develop skills in sustainability, agriculture and leadership while also providing a platform for a younger generation to impact climate action.
As well as being a sustainable food hub, Airfield Estate is also an educational charitable trust, and Emily O'Brien is well suited to her new role as she has first-hand experience of food production on the family farm in Croghan, and is passionate about climate action. Her interest has been developed a result of her family’s efforts to implement more sustainable practices on their farm.
As a member of the Airfield Estate Youth Board, the young Offaly woman and her peers will be taking part in workshops and talks to help them become future leaders in the food, agriculture and climate action space.
The Airfield Estate Youth Board is a diverse group of young people aged 15 – 19 from across Ireland who are passionate about shaping a more sustainable food future. Acting as advisors to the Estate’s leadership team, the Youth Board brings fresh perspectives to projects and decision-making processes, ensuring that youth voices are represented at Airfield Estate.
Speaking about the appointments, Airfield Estate CEO Claire Mac Evilly said “Our mission at Airfield Estate is to maintain the legacy created by the Overend sisters and to safeguard sustainable food production and education for future generations. There's no better way to do that than to invite young people in and empower them to participate directly in our activities and projects. While our team will be on hand to share resources and facilitate, we look forward to hearing new ways of thinking, and learning from our new members how best to cultivate and protect our shared future”.
The first term of the Youth Board, which began in 2023 and lasted two years, recently conducted research and published a report titled “Food Systems Though the Eyes of Young People” exploring how the younger generations perceive the food system and their role within it. The newly recruited cohort will be working together to develop a campaign which builds upon the findings of the previous cohort’s research.